Kenya paid thrice as much interest on domestic loans as it did on foreign debt in 2020, with the East African nation’s public debt surging considerably during the period, a new report released by the Treasury on Tuesday shows.
The country spent 186.7 billion shillings (about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars) as interest payments on domestic loans while that on foreign loans totaled 556 million dollars, said the Treasury in the Quarterly Economic and Budgetary Review for the period ending Dec. 31, 2020.
As of Dec. 31 last year, gross public debt stood at 66.4 billion dollars after rising by 11.2 billion dollars.
“The gross public debt comprised 52.1 percent external debt and 47.9 percent domestic debt. The increase in the public debt is attributed to external loan disbursements; exchange rate fluctuation; and the uptake of domestic debt,” said Treasury. Enditem
